More Tales in the Land of Nursery Rhyme

More Tales in the Land of
Nursery Rhyme
by Ada M.
Marzials

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Title: More Tales in the Land of Nursery Rhyme
Author: Ada M. Marzials
Release Date: July 31, 2007 [EBook #22184]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORE
TALES IN THE LAND OF ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Jack and Jill in the Witch's House.]

MORE TALES
IN THE LAND OF
NURSERY RHYME
BY
ADA M. MARZIALS

AUTHOR OF
"IN THE LAND OF NURSERY RHYME"

WITH FRONTISPIECE

LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LIMITED
RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1913

TO
MY LITTLE COUSINS
KATHLEEN AND DOROTHY

CONTENTS

THE NORTH WIND DOTH BLOW MARY, MARY, QUITE
CONTRARY JACK AND JILL LITTLE MISS MUFFET PUSSY
CAT, PUSSY CAT HEY, DIDDLE, DIDDLE!

THE NORTH WIND DOTH BLOW
"Different people have different opinions"
The North Wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will
the robin do then? Poor thing! He will sit in a barn, And to keep
himself warm He will hide his head under his wing. Poor thing!
Oh, how cold it was!
The North Wind howled round the barn, whirling the snowflakes into a
little heap inside the half-open door. Even beyond the little heap of
snow, right inside the barn among the whisps of hay and straw, and
beyond the pile of turnips piled up in one far corner, it was still bitterly
cold and draughty.
The few birds left had found their way into the old barn for shelter, and
were close together on a low bar of wood at the far end, where they sat
ruffling their feathers and shivering.
From time to time one of them would peer out at the leaden grey sky
and the falling snowflakes, and then hide its head under its wing again
to deaden the sound of the wind whistling through the crannies.
There were five of them.
A Robin, who had been blown in with the last gust of wind; a wretched
little Sparrow, who twittered helplessly from time to time, and then hid
her head ashamed at having been betrayed into such an exhibition of
weakness in public; an Owl, who, living habitually in the barn,
regarded the others with suspicion as intruders, and possibly thieves;
and, lastly, two queer Japanese birds, who had lived all the summer on
the ornamental lake in the garden.

These latter had been brought to the barn during the bad weather, as
they were considered too delicate to bear the stress of a really cold
English winter, and were looked down on and despised by the other
birds as foreigners. They were very shy, and crouched side by side in
one corner, never venturing a remark unless first spoken to. The Robin,
though he was the latest comer, had, by reason of his cheery
good-nature, and a certain perky self-confidence, already gained for
himself a position as leader among the other birds. Even the old Owl
blinked and winked occasionally at his jokes, and the Sparrow was
soon reduced to a helpless state of twittering giggles. But laughing will
not keep you warm, and at last even the Robin was forced to confess
that he had never been colder in his life; and what was the use of
thinking of all the plum-puddings and mince pies and bread crumbs and
holly-berries in the world, when you were feeling as though you had
not a feather on your body to bless yourself with!
"I wish I could make the snow stop somehow," he said. "It is all very
well for Mother Goose to go on plucking out feathers up there, but she
does not help to make us any warmer."
"Pooh!" said the Owl, who had lately condescended to join in the
conversation. "Who told you all that rubbish about Mother Goose?
Why, the snow has no more to do with Mother Goose than I have! . . .
Mother Goose, indeed!" and she blinked twice, just to show that she
could tell more if she chose.
"Bird of Wisdom," piped the Robin, with a wink at the Sparrow, which
set her off giggling worse than ever, "enlighten us, I pray you, as to the
true cause of snow?"
"Yes, do," said the Sparrow, when she had recovered her breath. The
Japanese birds said nothing, but stirred uneasily.
"Snow," began the Owl, sententiously, "is connected with rain and